Monday, January 15, 2007

Last Friday, I bumped into the hot dog vendor. I was tired after being with Tim Smith all day long.

Robert had to go home for 20 minutes and asked me if I would watch his stand?

I didn’t like it because there’s way too much responsibilities in handling out sausages, hot dogs and change. I’m no professional. As luck would have it? A guy showed up and I made him a hot dog.

Afterwards, I was alone and I noticed a guy coming out from the club and he jumped over the fence at the Sweetwaters bar.

He went after a girl and suddenly two bouncers showed up.

Being Charles, I was very nosy and went for a closer look.

Close to 20 seconds later, I remembered there was a bag of money at the stand.

I quickly went back and gathered the cash.

The guy took a swing at the bouncer and all hell broke loose. The bouncers forced the guy on the ground and escorted him out the gate.

I was told that the guy belongs to some sort of a gang.

The young punk was standing on the sidewalk.

The next thing I knew, the bouncers went outside to confront the guy.

I quickly grabbed the cash and went to watch the action.

There were around 200 onlookers watching the bouncers put the guy on the street while they waited for the police to arrive.

Now? I had a problem? Should I take pictures with my flash?

Would I be assaulted by the mob? Would someone try to take my camera?

I decided to take pictures < without the flash > but a bouncer told me on a few occasions not to take pictures!!!

I told the guy that I was a blogger.

In the past, I usually have my little press pass inside my sweater but not this time.

I turned around and Robert was back so I concentrated on the scene.

Robert quickly came to me asking me if I had the money? I had the camera on one hand and the money in the other.

I got a question? Would the mainstream media take pictures of a fight on the streets? Would this be considered as a story? If the Police comes to arrest a drunken individual during a fist fight? Should a media person be allowed to take pictures?

Good questions?

I believe that I will stick taking pictures of a non-violent nature.

Safer for me.

I decided to give Robert a helping hand. I went home around 3:00am. My god? I slept like a baby.

HALIFAX (CP) - Six people have launched a complaint before the federal Competition Bureau that electronic gaming machines are designed to entice gamblers into risking too much of their money.

The complaint alleges that by using "deceptive technologies," provincial gaming corporations are violating provisions of the Competition Act that prohibit deceptive marketing practices.

Debbie Langille, a Halifax resident and self-described gambling addict, claims that one example of an unfair trade practice is that software in the machines often produces near misses, enticing a gambler to try "just one more time."

"They give you that feeling that it's going to come, it's going to come. . . . They never, ever display the true odds of winning on the VLT," she said in an interview Monday.

The complaint submitted to the Competition Bureau, based in Gatineau, Que., says the machines give a "false or misleading" impression of the chances of winning.

Langille, a former fraud investigator with the federal government, said she is participating in the complaint because she lost all her life savings to the machines and wants to help prevent others from doing the same.She said the group's ultimate goal is to force provincially owned gaming corporations to modify the machines to make them less enticing.

Roger Horbay, another complainant in the case, cites Australian studies that suggest VLTs are very similar to "cheating carnival games."

William Rutsey, the chief executive of the Canadian Gaming Association, which represents the major gaming operators and equipment manufacturers, said the allegations by complainants are "nonsense."

"I think they are failing to recognise the fact there are standards around the world," he said. "There are gaming regulators in Canada and the United States that test and approve all of these machines to determine the fairness of these games."

Rutsey said the "near misses" aren't deceptive.

"I don't understand that as a concept," he said. "The games are random events."

Margaret McGee, a spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Gaming Corp., said her organization would have to examine what the complainants are alleging before submitting a formal response.

"We're committed to educating the public, and in all of our materials we make clear that these games are generated by random chance. . . . We make clear that there's no way to predict the outcome of a game," she said.

McGee noted that her organization publishes the odds of winning in pamphlets and on its website.

In Nova Scotia, the chances are one in 270,000 of winning a VLT game.

There is a cross section of people from across the country participating in the complaint.

David Bornman, a pastor in Vancouver; Christine McKay, an addiction therapist in Squamish, B.C.; Phyllis Vineberg, a homemaker in Montreal; Sol Boxenbaum, a consumer advocate in Montreal; Brian Yeallan, a chaplain in Kingston, Ont.; Bill Clark, a retired pharmacist and teacher from North Bay; and Johannes Deviet, an editor from London, Ont., are also named as complainants.

Jeff DucharmeTelegraph-JournalPublished Monday January 15th, 2007Appeared on page C1The latest salvo in the battle being waged between councillor John Ferguson and the city's pension board over how the fund is being managed has been fired squarely at Ferguson. The pension board has threatened to take legal action if the councillor doesn't publicly apologize by Jan. 22 - a week from today - for comments he has made in the media and council chambers.

Ferguson received the strongly worded letter from the law firm Clark Drummie Friday. On Sunday he was quick to fire back.

"Why should pension money be used to silence council members?" said Ferguson. "There should be an inquiry into board conduct in hiring a lawyer to silence opposition."

Undeterred maybe, but the usually outspoken councillor was guarded in his comments about the latest drama in the city's ongoing pension saga.

"In this day and age with issues of corporate governance and public governance"...exercising due diligence and asking questions is the appropriate thing to do. It's expected of directors and councillors to do this, that's all I've been doing."

After a one-page cover letter, the nine following pages quoted numerous comments Ferguson made, inside and outside council chambers, lambasting the pension fund and how it's run.

The latest estimate on Saint John's pension shortfall is $45 million, but in a strange turn of events the province granted the city an $8.4 million, five-year loan in December to help the city avoid tacking the payment onto this year's budget - something that would have ensured a tax rate hike for residents.

According to the letter Ferguson received, the legal action was launched on behalf of Board of Trustees and individual board members.

Mayor Norm McFarlane is chairman of the pension board. For the last two years he and Ferguson have had a running battle over the pension board and the fund it manages.

"They're not trying to silence a councillor," McFarlane said. "When he says something it has to have facts. Nobody's been gag-ordered."

In July, other councillors told Ferguson to put up or shut up and was allowed to give a 35-minute presentation on the issues he sees with the embattled pension fund. At the end of the presentation, Coun. Glen Tait sponsored a motion to disassociate common council from Ferguson's comments. The motion passed 8-3 with only Coun. Ivan Court and Coun. Bill Farren siding with Ferguson.

Tait is also a member of the pension board. As the former fire chief for the city, he draws a city pension. Ferguson maintains that Tait's even being on the board is a conflict of interest.

Farren says Ferguson has every right to ask the hard questions, and he deserves an answer. "I support every question that Coun. Ferguson has tried to ask and I support the third-party audit (of the pension plan)," Farren said Sunday after learning of the legal wrangling by the pension board.

The first murmurs of legal action came at a July 31 common council meeting when Kevin Estrabrooks, a trustee on the pension board, said during a brief presentation to council that the pension board was considering hiring a litigation lawyer to respond to some of the politician's "unsubstantiated" and "unwarranted" accusations.

McFarlane said he feels like his reputation has been sullied by shadowy accusations of wrongdoing.

"I'm on the pension board and the pension board has been (defamed). So if the pension board has, everyone has," McFarlane said.

While Farren believes that council can overcome the latest rift, he thinks some councillors are playing a game of divide and conquer, although he wouldn't point fingers at any councillor in particular.

"There's some councillors that would seem to like to have that wedge there between council," Farran said.

GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO GAVE HIM- SELF FOR OUR SINS, THAT HE MIGHT DELIVER US FROM THIS PRESENT EVIL AGE.. ( GALATIANS 1:3-4 *NKJV )

Dear Charles, As you know, no one knows what the future holds for them, but the Children of God may have peace of mind! Our Heavenly Father has great plans for our future, not only on Earth, but in Heaven as well! For; IT IS WRITTEN: EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM. ( 1 CORINTHIANS 2:9 )

Therefore we have no reason to fear the future, for with God in charge, there is no need to worry about anything! For in this life when we have heartache and woe, He is always there to comfort and guide us, and in our next life, we will live with him in Paradise forever!

No, we cannot imagine all of the wonderful things that God has planned for our future, but one thing that we may count on is that the best is yet to come! "FOR I KNOW THE THOUGHTS THAT I THINK TOWARD YOU," SAYS THE LORD, "THOUGHTS OF PEACE AND NOT OF EVIL, TO GIVE YOU A FUTURE AND A HOPE. " ( JEREMIAH 29:11 ) Therefore "THERE IS HOPE IN YOUR FUTURE," SAYS THE LORD! ( JEREMIAH 31:17 )

So have a wonderful Monday Charles, and may God's Great Love, Hope and Faith, fill your heart and mind, and may THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING, GUARD YOUR HEART AND MIND THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. Amen! ( PHILIPPIANS 4:7 )